Tabletop Shrine for Mary

During this month dedicated to Our Lady, consider making a small shrine or altar on a tabletop to honor Mary.  We made ours on a side table in the living room.

You can easily make a tabletop shrine with items you have on hand.  Here is what you need:

• a small statue of Mary
• plastic, crocheted, sewn, or painted flowers
• live flowers, herb cuttings, or a small potted plant
• a small vase
• a votive or tea light candle holder
• a way to display the artificial flowers, such as a plate or bowl to place them on, a picture of flowers in a frame or a board to glue them on, a branch to hang them from, etc.

For the flowers, traditional symbols and adornments for Mary, we cut pink blossoms from a large ornamental plastic branch.  If you have small branches, you could place them in a small vase without cutting the flowers off.  We also have a set of crocheted roses that we use to pray the rosary, and my daughters wanted to place some of those on the table also. 

I suggested they place the statue with some of the flowers on an ornamental plate we keep in our display cabinet, but you could spread yours on the table, place them in a bowl (floating in water, perhaps), or hang them from a branch.  The hanging idea came to me when I saw Jennifer’s post about a Flowering Mary Tree on Crafolic.  Let your children get creative with how they organize and place the elements of your shrine.

Mary is often associated with living plants and a bountiful harvest, so we used herbs cut from our garden, a combination of oregano, rosemary, and parsley.  My children decided what they wanted to cut, and how much.

You can see that we had plenty of herbs left over, since we only needed a few sprigs for our small blue vase (Mary’s traditional color).  I have placed the others in larger vases to have handy in the kitchen.  You can read about the health benefits of herb bouquets at this post.

We completed our shrine with a small religious tea light holder I bought at a dollar store a couple of months ago.  See how easy it is to organize a display for Mary out of things you already have?

The table where we placed our shrine is in the center of our house, next to a path we walk many times a day from the bedrooms to the living and kitchen area.  I like the spirituality it adds to this space, and the constant reminders to pray to Our Lady that we receive when we pass by.  Recently, that same table has been a dumping ground for toys, half colored pages, hair bands and bows, etc.  I am glad we have made better use of the space, and I like the new elegance of our shrine, so I think we may keep it, or a version of it, as long as possible.

In fact, my children have already rearranged the flowers and other items a couple of times, so we will probably change things up now and again.  Every time I’m tempted to place something else on that table or I find something there that doesn’t belong, I remember to keep that space dedicated to Mary.  This way, we can keep Mary in our thoughts, our hearts, and our prayers in the months to come.  See our shrine for the month of June (Sacred and Immaculate Heart of Mary) here.

If you don’t have a small table to dedicate to a shrine, you can make one for a smaller space by using a round fish bowl.  Scatter some pebbles, shells, or glass beads on the bottom, and place your statue, cut herbs, and artificial flowers inside.  Your herbs will dry up, but you can leave them as they are or refresh with new ones.  This would be perfect for a desktop or windowsill at home or at the office.  Or, to keep statues, flowers, and plants away from tiny hands that may want to try eating them! 

The fishbowl shrine was inspired by two ideas.  Last year, Lacy posted on Catholic Icing about Mary Terrariums.  Go see her interesting idea, especially if you are inclined to plant something this spring.  Also, last fall I saw something when visiting one of my aunts.

I really like the display my aunt made with a small angel statue in a fishbowl with shells.  Ceramic flowers like hers would make a nice addition to a tabletop shrine too.  When I saw her display, I knew that I wanted to do something similar.  You can be sure I’ll post about it when we do.

In case you haven’t seen them, you can read about my other Mary projects at these links.

How to Make a Plaque for Mary

How to Make Mary Spoon Puppets for Dramatizing

I’m linking this post with Equipping Catholic Families.  Monica hosts a Saints Cele-linky organized by month.

I have also added this post to the Catholic Bloggers Round Up at the new Catholic Bloggers Network.  They are currently hosting a Big Clicker Contest; the linked posts with the most clicks will win a button to hang on their blog.  Go see what people have linked up for May.

Jennifer at Crafolic is hosting a Month of Mary Craft and Décor Link up, so I have linked there also.  She has several wonderful ideas for celebrating Mary and the link up is sure to have many more.

Holly at A Life-Size Catholic Blog hosts a monthly Pay It Forward Link Up, so I am connecting there in May also.  Her link up is a great forum for sharing the ideas you have found on other blogs, as I have shared my inspiration for the tabletop shrine with you.  Go see what others are sharing this month.

Spring Writing News

Last week, I called to see how my chapbooks were selling at Brazos Bookstore, and learned they had sold 70% of the copies I left several weeks ago.  Yeah!  So, I took more copies over to restock.  Go and buy your copy of Entre la claridad or my first chapbook, Familia before they run out.  Or, you can buy Entre la claridad directly from Mouthfeel Press.

You may have noticed I changed the right sidebar to highlight a series of posts that include excerpts from Entre la claridad and a direct link to the press.  In case you missed the excerpts published previously, you can read them here.  You can listen to radio broadcasts of poems from both books at the links on my Audio page.

You can start or join my discussion forum about the usefulness of National Poetry month at this post, or at the Facebook Page for Entre la claridad.  I am certainly taking advantage of April to remind you about my book as often as possible!

Yesterday, I found a new button that I have hung at the bottom of the left sidebar (scroll down and take a look).  I have pledged to read the printed word, which was very easy for me since I don’t enjoy reading books on-line.  Yes, I read blogs and short news articles on the computer or ipad, but for longer articles and books, nothing beats paper in my opinion.  I really enjoy the feel of a book in my hands.  Plus, I write in my books; they are full of underlines, circles, arrows, notes, and references to other authors.  I’m sure you can do something similar to e-books, but I don’t think it will be the same kind of experience.

You can read my thoughts about book publication versus e-books at this post.  If you agree that reading the printed word is sublime, you can hang a button on your blog too (there are several options and sizes).  Just click on the button to visit the web site and copy the coding for your button of choice.  The pledging itself is on the honor system.  And put your thoughts about reading printed books in the comments below if you are inclined to say something.

I have more projects in the works, including an upcoming guest post at a new blog hosted by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.  I learned about VIDA at the AWP Conference last month.  They are best known for conducting The Count, a statistical comparison of the number of publications by male authors versus female authors.  More men are published than women in all publishing arenas, even when more manuscripts, pitches, and queries are submitted by women.  It is hard to deny gender bias in the face of the statistics.  Go take a look at the results.

VIDA’s blog, HER KIND, will launch soon; my post on Freedom for Women Writers will appear in July.  Check back for more information about HER KIND and my guest post.

Several months later, I will be reading on one of the regional poets panels at the South Central Modern Language Association Conference in San Antonio.  I am excited to present at two conferences in one year, something I have not done in over a decade.  Also, my husband and children will likely travel with me; as a family we travel to San Antonio at least once a year.  It’s a great city to relax in, with much to see and do.

I am also thinking about future blog posts, including more posts for my Healthier Eating series: the healthier salad dressing and the healthier poultry salad.  I also hope to post about how to dry your own herbs, the joys of juicing citrus manually, and harvesting/preparing nopalitos (yes, you can eat nopal cactus).  I’m pondering a new occasional series: Meatless Mondays.  (See my meatless posts here).  Plus, there will be more Easter posts (Easter cards and Easter books), and hopefully something for Pentecost.

Looking ahead, I will be hosting a Link up for The Most Holy Trinity, celebrated this year on June 3^rd.  I hope you will participate by linking your crafts, thoughts, and musings about our One God in Three Persons and reading the posts that link up.  Look for more information a month from now.  In the meantime, I need to learn how to create a button!  If you have pointers, let me know.  This link up is part of the Liturgical Calendar Link up Party organized by Xhonané at Familia Católica.  If you are interested in hosting a link up, click on the button to get the details and to sign up.

The Garden is Planted

Last week, the girls and I started clearing out the weeds from our garden plot so we could plant for the season.  In the process, we discovered that some of our crops from last year had sprouted from seed, including two romaine lettuces, a lot of parsley, and some mint.  

romaine lettuce

mint crowded by parsley

Our oregano and rosemary survived the winter, as they usually do, and we even found a tiny bell pepper on one of last year’s plants!  Also, the eggplant is still green; I actually harvested an eggplant from it last month!  Even our grape vine has come back unexpectedly (it looked quite sad over the winter).

eggplant

In fact, most of our produce trees are fruiting, including the peach, fig, and lemon trees.  

peaches

fig

lemons

One of the blueberry bushes is flowering, as is the orange tree and the citronella (just in time for mosquito season).

blueberry

citronella

Saturday, we spent the entire day prepping our garden plot and planting.  We began with a trip to the farmer’s market, where I conversed with the tomato farmer and bought two of his heirloom seedlings: a cherry tomato and a stripe variety.  I was pleasantly surprised to meet someone who farms tomatoes exclusively, and enjoyed hearing his methods for nurturing tomato plants.  

We then headed over to our local home improvement store where we picked up more heirloom and cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and hot peppers, all as seedlings.  After a final stop at my in-laws for a lemongrass seedling, we headed home to complete the clean up and plant our seedlings as well as the seeds we saved from last year and some we have bought the last few weeks.

In addition to the seedlings, we planted the following seeds: basil and more romaine (from seeds harvested last fall), salad bowl lettuce, kale, broccoli and carrots.  Some of these are cold weather crops, but we wanted to try them anyway.  Our weekend weather was crispy cool in the mornings and warm in the afternoons; perfect spring weather for planting.

We garden organically, so we usually spend time throughout the season weeding the plot.  This year, we are trying some preventative measures.  After planting the seedlings, we laid down newspaper and topped it with dried leaves.  You can barely see some of the tomato seedlings poking out above all that in the picture below. 

 

Here’s hoping for a bountiful season!  What are you planting this year?

Neighbors, if you want to start an herb garden, I have parsley, oregano, and rosemary seedlings.  If the basil comes up, I should have plenty of that, too.  Come on by to get some!